Chapter 149
Chapter 149
Harry’s plan was simple: use the Invisibility Cloak to visit Hagrid and ask him for information.
“We have to talk to him,” Harry said. “I can’t believe Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets this time as well, but if he released the monster last time, then he must know how to enter the Chamber. That’s our best lead.”
“But how will you get out of the castle?” Hermione asked. “Professor McGonagall said professors would be patrolling everywhere. I could hear George and Fred complaining from inside the girls’ dormitory that Professor Snape had taken twenty points from each of them.”
“I have a way.” Harry spoke firmly. “I don’t think we’ll be discovered as long as we’re careful.”
“All right. Actually, I think I may know what the monster is,” Hermione said. “That’s why I went to the library yesterday.”
“What is it?” Ron asked.
Hermione searched her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Look…”
“A basilisk?” Ron took the page and murmured its contents aloud.
“Exactly.” Hermione nodded and yawned again. She was plainly exhausted. “I suddenly remembered reading in one of Mr Scamander’s books about a creature capable of petrifying people. A basilisk is just such a creature.”
“Its gaze can petrify and kill.”
“But none of the victims died,” Harry said. “Madam Pomfrey said they could all be restored with mature Mandrake.”
“Perhaps it decided to show mercy?” Ron offered the joke drily, but no one found the matter amusing. He changed tack.
“A basilisk. Yes, it must be a basilisk. When I was little, Mum always used it to frighten me. She said that if I misbehaved or wasted my time playing, a basilisk would carry me off and eat me.”
“Basilisks are usually enormous monsters, which suits Hagrid perfectly. He loves magical creatures that are both huge and extremely dangerous.”
“If the monster Hagrid released back then was a basilisk, I think you had better ask him to confirm it.” Hermione nodded, straightened and stretched. “I won’t come with you. I’m going to visit Suer in the hospital wing later.”
But what Harry had seen was definitely not a snake… The doubt flashed through his mind, but as he watched Hermione walk away, he forced it aside.
Once they found Hagrid, they would soon know whether it was a basilisk.
Breakfast was delivered specially from the kitchens. Professor McGonagall was enforcing the restrictions rigorously: a professor and a ghost patrolled together throughout the castle. Harry swore he had never known Hogwarts possessed so many professors.
He and Ron hid beneath the Invisibility Cloak and avoided several groups of ghosts and professors, only to find the castle’s oak doors barred to them — or, more precisely, Professor Snape standing in front of those doors.
Attempting the impossible despite knowing better was not courage. It was sheer stupidity.
Harry and Ron promptly turned back the way they had come.
Meanwhile, Suer awoke from a long sleep and stretched. There was no sense of time inside the Room of Requirement, and he had no idea what hour it was.
“I need a clock,” Suer called lazily.
Boom…
An old mechanical grandfather clock dropped into place with a heavy crash.
Oh no! It was already this late…
Dumbledore had told him the previous night that Snape would be waiting in his office at ten that morning…
It was now half past ten, with only an hour left before lunch…
Suer could already imagine how many words cold enough to plunge him into an icehouse would pour from Snape’s perfectly warm mouth after the professor had waited half an hour for nothing.
He hurriedly stuffed his wand into his robes and touched the magical mark within him. A small badger appeared on the spot. Thanks to frequent practice, he could now change back and forth with ease.
On the eighth floor, a doorway silently appeared in the blank wall opposite the tapestry.
The closed door gave a faint click, and a black-and-white badger cautiously poked its head out.
No one there. Safe.
The badger nodded, darted through, and the milky-white doorway vanished once more.
After checking his direction, Suer ran towards Professor Snape’s office. He had barely reached a statue in the corridor when a pair of hands suddenly seized him by the scruff of his neck.
Oh no. The scruff of destiny had been seized.
Her… Hermione?
Suer let all four limbs dangle, poked out his tongue and gazed innocently at the owner of the hand gripping his scruff.
The person who had appeared from nowhere and caught him was Hermione. The girl’s pretty face was frosty as she glared at Suer. Fine red veins showed in her large eyes, and the faint shadows beneath them proved that she had not slept properly the previous night.
The stern-faced girl and the little badger stared at one another for a long while…
“You…”
“Who’s there?” An elderly voice interrupted Hermione before she could finish, followed by a flurry of hurried footsteps.
Hermione reacted with astonishing speed. She clutched the badger tightly against her chest and sprinted towards the Room of Requirement.
The milky-white doorway had only just vanished when a thin-haired old man arrived, panting heavily. He looked all around and searched every possible hiding place, not even neglecting the space behind the tapestry.
“Strange. I definitely heard something here.”
“Did either of you see anything?” he asked the troll and Barnabas the Barmy in the tapestry, but the troll in the picture merely glared viciously at him.
Barnabas did the same. When the old man lifted the tapestry, he had accidentally let the troll club Barnabas several more times. Refraining from abuse was already the height of courtesy.
Inside the Room of Requirement, Hermione took several rapid breaths and looked down into her arms, only to discover the badger with his tongue hanging out and his eyes rolled back.
“Oh!” she cried, hurriedly putting him on the floor.
Never in his dreams had Suer imagined that he would return only minutes after leaving the Room of Requirement, or that his future wife would nearly squeeze him to death.
Were you trying to murder your husband, Hermione?!
Suer lay limply on the floor and coughed several times before recovering. When he looked up, he met a pair of eyes filled with concern.
“Was it you?” Hermione finally asked the question she had not managed to voice outside.
Suer still wanted to struggle. He considered relying on his acting skills to muddle through, but the certainty in Hermione’s eyes as she asked made him realise that his secret had been completely exposed.